General Burgoyne had more than a day’s head start when General Gates began pursuing on the morning of October 10, and his troops caught up with the retreating British army at Saratoga, present-day Schuylerville, within hours. The British retreat devastated what was and is a beautiful valley, as Burgoyne’s troops burned and pulled down all the houses and bridges in their way. The road to Saratoga was covered with warlike stores, including wagons, baggage, dead carcasses, ammunition, and tents, and weeks later a traveler wrote that the whole way from Still Water to Saratoga was marked with devastation, where an once agreeable and delightful part of the country displayed a shocking picture of havoc and wild desolation.